MIKE GANTER, QMI Agency

TORONTO - Way back in training camp in Halifax we did the mandatory new guy story on Landry Fields. Based on conversations with his coach and his teammates we dubbed him this year’s glue guy.

Well, it’s taken a while, thanks in large part to an unexpected surgery, but Fields seems to be on the verge of sticking for all the right reasons.

But health was only part of what was holding him back. Turns out there was another monkey on Fields’ back that had to be removed from the equation before he could step into that role of guy on the team that does all the little things that make all his teammates better.

This monkey was the one pretty much every player battles following his first big-money contract. In short, Fields caved into the pressure of living up to the money he received to come to Toronto and felt he had to do more.